The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday said that if Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J.P. Nadda is sure of having the next Mumbai mayor from his party, then he should make a pitch for holding the civic elections immediately.
On the first day of his two-day visit to Maharashtra, Mr. Nadda on Wednesday called for collective efforts by the BJP to ensure that the next mayor of Mumbai is from the party. He made the statement while addressing party functionaries at a meeting in Mumbai.
Reacting to it, NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said in a statement, "If J.P. Nadda is so sure of having the next Mumbai Mayor from BJP, he should make a call for BMC elections to be held immediately, otherwise it will prove that they are afraid of going to polls and all that he said in Mumbai was only to create a false winning narrative." Mr. Nadda must know that in order to have a mayor, they must first contest BMC elections which the state government led by his party is avoiding because an internal survey of the Maharashtra BJP shows that if elections are held now they will lose, he said.
"Besides, having the Eknath Shinde group on board has not gained them any voters. In fact, they (BJP) know that they have lost credibility by aligning with them (Shinde group) after it orchestrated a coup," he said.
It appears that either the local BJP Mumbai unit has not appraised Mr. Nadda of the prevailing unacceptably of the party among the voters in Mumbai and Maharashtra or that he is aware and therefore trying to create a perception that everything is alright and they are sure of winning, Mr. Crasto added.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said Mr. Nadda is the national president of the BJP and hence should speak on why his party lost in Karnataka, and also on the rising incidents of spying in defence establishments and the Adani issue.
The Shiv Sena (undivided) ruled the Mumbai civic body for more than two decades till March 2022.
The last mayor of Mumbai before the five-year term of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ended in March 2022 was Kishori Pednekar, who belongs to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction. The state government appointed the administrator in the BMC as elections could not be held before the expiry of the five-year term.
In the 2017 BMC elections, the BJP made giant strides by winning 82 of 227 seats, just two seats behind the Shiv Sena (undivided).
